Man About To Be Hit By A Subway Train Caught On Camera

Falling or being pushed onto a subway platform is probably among the bigger fears of any New Yorker who uses public transportation (which is a lot of them). In the case of a 58-year-old man, that nightmare became a reality, which was captured, in part, on camera. A subway surveillance camera caught an altercation between the assailant and the victim, and a photographer on the scene captured an image of the man standing on the tracks just before the train hit him.

The mentioned image is included in The New York Post's report, which shows 58-year-old Ki Suk Han standing on the tracks of the 49th Street subway station as the train comes barreling toward him. It's a disturbing image, especially when you consider that the man died not long after, but that didn't stop the Post from plastering it across the cover of today's paper (click the link of you want to see it) over the word "DOOMED".

From what witnesses said, the victim may have been intoxicated at the time and was pushed onto the tracks by a panhandler after an altercation, part of which was caught on video (below). The assailant took off and from the Post's report, has yet to be apprehended. Ki Suk Han was taken to Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Here's a snippet of a surveillance video released by the police, that shows the victim and the man who pushed him having an argument.

Knowing that someone was taking pictures of the man on the tracks just before he was hit, the first obvious question is, why was someone taking a picture of this guy instead of helping him off the tracks? From the Post's report:

Post freelance photographer R. Umar Abbasi — who had been waiting on the platform of the 49th Street station — ran toward the train, repeatedly firing off his flash to warn the operator.

“I just started running, running, hoping that the driver could see my flash,” said Abbasi, whose camera captured chilling shots of Suk’s tragic fight for his life.

To be fair, unless a person is exceptionally strong, it's likely that they'd need help pulling someone up onto the platform. But if there were other witnesses there, couldn't people help him? Some may jump to the conclusion that people (including this photographer) watched but did little or nothing to help this man get off the tracks before the train passed. But it sounds like people were trying to get to the man or get the attention of the train operator so he'd stop the train. Not being there myself, I won't pass judgment, but the optimist in me wants to believe all of this happened too fast for anyone to be able to help the man in time, and unfortunately, in all the chaos, the assailant of 58-year-old father and husband got away (for now - ABC News says police are still searching for him.)